Good

¹⁷ As Jesus continued down the road, a man ran up, knelt before him, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to obtain eternal life?” ¹⁸ Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except the one God. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor your father and mother.” ²⁰ “Teacher,” he responded, “I’ve kept all of these things since I was a boy.” ²¹ Jesus looked at him carefully and loved him. He said, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me.” ²² But the man was dismayed at this statement and went away saddened, because he had many possessions. ²³ Looking around, Jesus said to his disciples, “It will be very hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom!” ²⁴ His words startled the disciples, so Jesus told them again, “Children, it’s difficult to enter God’s kingdom! ²⁵ It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.” ²⁶ They were shocked even more and said to each other, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ Jesus looked at them carefully and said, “It’s impossible with human beings, but not with God. All things are possible for God.” ²⁸ Peter said to him, “Look, we’ve left everything and followed you.” ²⁹ Jesus said, “I assure you that anyone who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or farms because of me and because of the good news ³⁰ will receive one hundred times as much now in this life—houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and farms (with harassment)—and in the coming age, eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first.” (Mark 10:17-31, CEB)

What is good?

Who is good?

Are any of us good all the time?

A person asked Jesus what they must do to obtain eternal life, and Jesus gave the person a run down of the commandments. Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor your father and mother. Notice the quote here is from the text above and all of the don’t are in italics except Don’t cheat. Because it is not one of the commandments from the tablets. But still have we all not done these? Even if we don’t take them as far as Jesus told us to. We can usually then if it isn’t to the Jesus level say we haven’t murdered, committed adultery, stolen, but then we might get hung up. False testimony, cheating, and honoring are really subjective. And would others say you haven’t done those. But this person says I’ve done all these. So Jesus says, sell all you have and give the money to the poor and follow me. And the person had many possessions so they were sad about this.

We want to be good as long as we don’t have to be uncomfortable. Which really means serving is about having things our way. We can’t follow God and have it our way.

Let go and follow where God is leading, and then you will be good.

Loving People. Loving God.